Friday, July 12, 2013

"In the Broken Birdcage of Kathleen Fair" by Cate Gardner

When
the mirror released Kathleen into the unknown, for the briefest of moments she
giggled and realised that she’d never laughed before. She had been a blank
canvas, sitting and waiting in a room and occasionally bouncing from wall to
wall desperate for freedom - and now she was out. White walls no longer
surrounded her. In this new place, a thousand mirrors spun reflecting worlds.

There is magic within names. We can see it at work
every day, while passing a signboard with a tempting name painted on it
inviting the passerby to scan the show window of a cozy shop or to step over
the threshold of a stylish little coffee house. We can see it at work on the
book covers adorned with an alluring title seducing the reader to a further
exploration of the pages that follow. “In
the Broken Birdcage of Kathleen Fair” is a title with such magic, but it is
not the only one of the kind among Cate
Gardner’s works, she has a small history of such enticing titles. Fortunately,
Cate Gardner’s fiction is more than
just cheeky, original titles, but it is also a show of ingenuity and
imagination without any borders in sight.

So, open the door carved with the name “In the Broken
Birdcage of Kathleen Fair” and you’ll see instantly Cate Gardner’s
inventiveness at work:

“To
Kathleen, the most irregular thing about the mirror wasn’t its sudden
appearance on the wall or its reluctance to reflect the gargantuan nature of
her bedroom furniture, but that it appeared to be of normal size. That is, it
was something she could see her reflection in without feeling like a
Lilliputian or a specimen in a box. Leaning back on her heels and spreading her
arms wide, and for once fighting the urge to smile rather than frown, Kathleen
looked to the concave glass ceiling. She was an ant in their farm, a flea in
their circus, and now something new looked in at her. She would investigate the
mirror. It would prove to be something good.”

Kathleen Fair is young girl held captive in a room
where every single piece of furniture overtops her. The only door of the room
is guarded, but an escaping way is revealed when a mirror appears on a wall and
someone strange enters through it. Kathleen steps outside her room for the
first time and discovers a cavern with thousands of mirrors reflecting and
accessing thousands of worlds. And from this point her adventure begins.

“In the Broken Birdcage of Kathleen Fair” is a
delightful tale of love, discovery and courage. The readers will discover
beyond the portals of mirrors, a chamber of a perfumer, one who collects “a dab of testosterone, lust and a hint of
strawberry fields” in order to create his potions, or a sassy version of
hell where invisible graffiti artists write warnings and contracts on the walls
and the devil wears “a black suit over a grey t-shirt” while twirling an
umbrella until “it flapped open and then
he rested it against his shoulder.” There are promises and deals made,
attempts to sneak out of them, a love triangle, or better still, quadrangle, and
a hot air balloons contest. In a phrase, it is an exuberant display of
imagination spiced with humor and a story that holds all the way to the end.

Cate Gardner’s novella might bear reminiscences of a
twisted rescue of Persephone from the underworld, Astrid Lindgren’s Nils
Karlsson Pyssling or Patrick Süskind’s “Perfume”, but these tiny hints are, if
you like, something borrowed for good luck, familiar elements used without
abuse and without losing the originality of the story in the least. On the
contrary, I could say that all these small, recognizable components are given a
new dimension, transformed and blended perfectly in the unique creation that is
“In the Broken Birdcage of Kathleen Fair”. There are also a couple questions
that remain a mystery, some who and whys, but once again I believe that in
letting these little things at the power of each reader’s mind Cate Gardner
enhances the particularities of her story and gives it a feature personalized
to the likings of everyone who picks up her novella.

Cate
Gardner might have published only in the shorter forms of
fiction so far, stories, novellas, small novels, but every single one of them
is written with exceptional skill and passion. “In the Broken Birdcage of Kathleen Fair” is the latest example of Cate Gardner’s prowess in weaving
fantastical worlds and strange events and to confirm that she is one of the
distinct voices of modern speculative fiction.